Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria villa faces demolition

Villa Ambron, inspiration for The Alexandria Quartet, may be bulldozed to make way for high-rise apartment block

Villa Ambron, Lawrence Durrell's crumbling ­former home, would become the 36th listed building from Alexandria’s fin-de-siècle heyday to be demolished in five years, say campaigners. Photograph: Patrick Kingsley

The Alexandria villa that inspired one of the 20th century's most acclaimed works of literature could soon be demolished, according to its new owner.

Villa Ambron was once the home of Lawrence Durrell, the British author twice shortlisted for the Nobel prize for literature, whose experiences while living at the villa inspired his most famous work, The Alexandria Quartet. But the businessman who owns it says it may soon make way for a high-rise apartment block.

If bulldozed, Durrell's crumbling former home would become the 36th listed building from Alexandria's fin-de-siècle heyday to be demolished in five years, according to campaigners.

Up to 25 of the buildings were destroyed illegally by developers, prompting Alexandria's historians and architects to fear for the legacy of a city that was once one of the grandest in the region. Many of the 1,135 buildings nominally protected by a 2006 preservation order are in serious disrepair and at risk of demolition.

"Alexandria is lost in my opinion," said Mohamed Awad, the founder and president of the Alexandria Preservation Trust, a group set up to help preserve the city's architecture. "We are putting up a fight, but we are going to lose the war in terms of preservation."

Until the 1950s, Alexandria was one of the Mediterranean's most cosmopolitan cities – attracting an eclectic mix of nationalities, religious groups, artists and writers. One of the biggest synagogues in the Middle East – once one of 14 in the city – still stands in sight of several mosques. A Catholic cathedral lies a stone's throw from the seat of the Greek Orthodox church in Africa, and both are sited near Roman ruins. The novelist EM Forster and Greek poet CP Cavafy both lived in Alexandria, while the last king of Italy died there – all in buildings designed by some of the 19th century's leading architects.

Villa Ambron was one of the fulcrums of Alexandria's cultural life. Built and owned by architect Aldo Ambron – one of a then 70,000-strong Jewish community that has all but vanished – the house has been home to dignitaries including Italy's exiled king Vittorio Emanuele III, and leading Egyptian painters Saad el-Khadim and Effat Nagui. "It was the place to be seen if you were an artist," said Awad, who has led the fight to save many of the city's buildings.

After fleeing Nazi-occupied Greece, Durrell lived in the villa's top floor for much of the second world war with his Alexandrian second wife, Eve Cohen – who was the inspiration for Justine, the heroine of The Alexandria Quartet. Durrell wrote the novel Prospero's Cell in the house's distinctive octagonal tower.

Durrell left Egypt after the war, and the Ambron family sold the house in 1996 to a local developer, Abdelaziz Ahmed Abdelaziz. Having already built two apartment blocks in the villa's garden, Abdelaziz says he was granted judicial approval to demolish the villa last March. Awad says the house is still legally protected by the 2006 protection order but nevertheless Abdelaziz claims he will knock it down in January after no conservator raised enough money to buy the site.

"Although I already have the right, until now I haven't demolished the building because I want to keep the memory of Lawrence Durrell alive," Abdelaziz told the Guardian. "But I've been waiting 15 years and soon I won't be able to wait any longer. It will be demolished early in 2014 if I don't get a quick response."

Activists do not entirely blame the developers. The government has often failed to punish infringements of planning law, particularly since Egypt's 2011 uprising, which loosened administrative control in many areas of the state. They also acknowledge that owners are given little financial incentive to maintain listed property.

Thanks to Egypt's antiquated rent-control system, tenants of the city's oldest buildings need only pay rent at decades-old rates, meaning that their monthly dues are sometimes now only worth a few English pence.

"I can't blame the owners of the buildings," said Mohamed Aboulkhier, the co-founder of Save Alex, another movement that campaigns to protect the city's heritage. "How can you ask a building owner to turn away a fortune by selling the property if he's not making any other money? How about we give this guy alternatives. Rather than making the building an obstacle, let's turn it into an opportunity, so he doesn't have to turn it into a high-rise block."

But progress is being made. One local businessman, who wishes to remain anonymous, is gradually installing businesses in the ground floors of heritage buildings, and using the profits to preserve the upper floors. Activists hope others might follow suit. Meanwhile, campaigns by Save Alex helped stop the destruction of the Villa Cicurel, another local landmark, and recently persuaded Alexandria's governor to halt construction at the Majestic Hotel.

But activists agree the biggest challenge may be to persuade ordinary people that their heritage is worth preserving – particularly when the frequent collapse of working-class tenements seems a much more pressing problem. "People want basic needs – they want a place to live," said Aboulkhier, who nevertheless has noted a increase in local cultural awareness. "When we used to talk about heritage people would say: what are you talking about? That's a luxury. But you can see people taking the initiative even before us activists."